This article,
reprinted for the first time from a very early Anglo-Israel journal,
provides documented evidence that Britain received the gospel very
early in the first century -- direct from the early disciples of the
Messiah. The knowledge of this heritage has been all but forgotten
in the modern push to acknowledge Britain's supposed debt to St.
Augustine and Roman Catholicism.

by J. Thompson

An inquiry as to the time when Christianity
was introduced into this country cannot fail to be of interest to everyone,
while a correct knowledge of the facts will tend to throw light upon, if not
settle, several disputed questions. It is only too commonly supposed that
Augustine and the monks sent by Pope Gregory the Great at the end of the sixth
century to convert the Saxons were the first to establish Christianity
successfully in this country. But it must be remembered that the Saxons were
only comparatively recent comers; they had conquered and displaced the earlier
inhabitants, who before they arrived were already civilized, and Christianized,
as all authentic history testifies. These older Britons had, for a century and a
half previous to the arrival of Augustine, been more or less in conflict with
the heathen Saxons, and, worsted by them, had retired to the Western and wilder
part of the island. When Augustine had succeeded in converting Ethelbert, King
of the Saxons, he sought to extend throughout the whole country the authority of
his master, the Pope of Rome, and called together a council, or synod, of the
Saxon and British bishops, but the latter refused submission to the Pope, or to
conform to the Romish rites, especially in respect to the time of celebrating
Easter.

Thus it is evident that though Christianity at
the time of Augustine's landing in Kent was under a cloud of heathenism, it was
not entirely banished from the country; but the refusal of the British clergy to
submit to Augustine, as the representative of Rome, drew down upon them the
wrath of that sainted monk, who, seeing that they would not join him in
preaching to the heathen Saxons, menaced them with the force of their enemies'
swords, and "which accordingly came to pass," quaintly writes Fuller; "for not
long after, Ethelfrid, the pagan king of Northumberland, conquered Chester,
invaded Wales, and called the Britons to battle." Among the latter was a
regiment of monks, and Ethelfrid, being told that these monks prayed against
him, fell fiercely upon, and put twelve hundred of them to the sword, fifty only
escaping. (Fuller:Church
History of Great Britain. Book IL, Cent. VII.
chap. 9.)

The dispute in reference to the time of celebrating Easter
was of older date than the era of Augustine. The Asiatic Churches observed
Easter on the 14th day of March, on whatever day of the week it happened, as
being the day on which the Jews kept their Passover; so that the festival would
mostly be held on other days of the week than the first. The controversy between
the Eastern and Western Churches in this matter commenced in the time of
Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and was revived in the
episcopate of Victor, towards the end of the second century. Irenaeus, Bishop of
Lyons, in a letter (A.D.195) sharply rebuked Victor, who desired to
excommunicate all the Asiatic Churches, because they would not observe Easter at
the same time as Rome. (Moshem's,Eccless. Hist. Cent. ll, ii,
chap. 4., §§. IX-XI; also see Eusebius' Eccless. Hist. V. chap.
23-24) The fact that the British Christians observed Easter at the same time as
the Asiatic Churches before the arrival of Augustine, is, as far as it
goes, proof presumptive in favour of their assertion that they received their
Christianity at first direct from the East, and not through any western Church, such as Rome, whose practice
was different.

Some writers say that Eleutherius, Bishop of
Rome, in A.D.178 sent Damianus and Fugatius into England at the request of King
Lucius, and that by them Lucius was converted to Christianity and baptized. But
this is contradicted by the plain words of Eleutherius himself in answer to the
letter of King Lucius. It is evident that Lucius had learnt the elements of
Christianity before he sent to Eleutherius for further instruction; for such is
the express meaning of the words, "Ye have received of late, through God's
mercy, in the realm of Brittainny (sic), the law and faith of Christ; ye have
with you, within the realm, both parts of Scripture." (See the whole letter in Foxe:Acts and Mon.
1, p.118, edition of 1684.)
It would also appear from these last words, that the Old and New Testaments were
at so early a date as this known in Great Britain. The natural inference is that
the ancient Britons, before the middle of the second century, were first taught
by the Eastern, rather than the Roman Church, and at most were confirmed in
their faith by Eleutherius sending Fugatius and Damianus to preach the simple
word of the Gospel, and not by the processions and ritual of the later Papal
Church of Rome.

Tertullian, who lived about the end of the
second century, in his book,Contra Judeos, implies the same by his
testimony, that in his day it was commonly affirmed. that the Gospel story was
dispersed abroad by the apostles among "the Medes, Persians, Parthians, and
dwellers in Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Egypt, Pamphylia,
and many more countries;" at length mentioning the "coasts of the Nuorians
(Morocco), and all the borders of Spain, with various nations of Gaul;" and also
"parts of Britain, which Rome never could attain to, are now subject to Christ."
This testimony of Tertullian, confirmed as it was by Origen, who flourished
immediately after him, bears out the inference above drawn from the letter of
Eleutherius, which referred to a period just immediately before Tertullian, that
Christianity was early introduced into, and successfully established in Great
Britain.

In his Church History(Book I. Cent. II. §.
7), Fuller adduces the reasons
which exist for suspecting the genuineness of the letter attributed to
Eleutherius; and his conclusion is that the true answer of Eleutherius to Lucius
was not extant when this was compiled, probably a thousand years after his
death; but he does not doubt that tradition has therein preserved the outlines
of the facts, and which are affirmed so clearly by Tertullian and Origen, in the
age immediately succeeding.

Though the letter attributed to Eleutherius
has been accepted as authentic and very valuable by some learned men, including
Bishop Jewel, others such as Ussher and Spelman, have pronounced it to be a
forgery of much more recent date. Its genuineness is challenged on the ground
that it makes Lucius king of the whole of Britain, while he was only a
subordinate British monarch, under the Roman Emperor, in his own limited
dominions, which were, probably, the parts now called Surrey and Sussex. The
texts of Scripture cited therein are from
the translation of Jerome, who did not flourish until nearly two centuries after
Eleutherius; and, further, this letter seems to have been unknown to (because
unmentioned by) all our historians till about a thousand years after the death
of Lucius. Who wrote it, or where it was first discovered, are still matters of
uncertainty, and likely to remain so though we may accept it as embodying what
was generally accepted at the time it was written as the traditional history of
King Lucius, and his message to Pope Eleutherius.

Irenreus (A.D.178), who was brought up
under Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, asserts that in his time the Church
was spread throughout the world, and particularly specifies the Churches in
Germany, Iberia (Spain), and among the Celts (i.e., in Gaul and Britain),
in the East, in Egypt, and in Lybia. (Lib. i., c.1, 3)

But even more important is the testimony of
Clemens
Romanus (A.D.96), the friend and fellow labourer of St. Paul. He says, "St.
Paul preached in the East and West, leaving behind him an illustrious record of
his faith, having taught the whole world righteousness, and having traveled even
to the utmost bounds of the West." (Hist., book ii., ch.
40) This expression, "the utmost bounds of the west," is reasonably supposed to
extend to the British Isles. And for the same purpose, Christ employed fishermen
for the first preachers of the Gospel, as who, being acquainted with the water
and mysteries of sailing, would with the more delight undertake long sea-voyages
into foreign countries. (Church History, b. i., cent. i., chap.
vi.)

The question, "which missionary brought the
Gospel into this country at so early a date?" is one that cannot with certainty
be answered: One tradition ascribes this honour to Simon Zelotes, whom Dorotheus,
Bishop of Tyre, in the time of Diocletian and Constantine the Great, says was
both martyred and buried in Britain; and Necephorous, writing in the beginning
of the ninth century, also asserts that "Simon Zelotes entered the Western ocean
and preached the Gospel in the British isles" (See Yeowell's,
Chronicles of the Ancient British Church, p.13)

How far these testimonies may be accepted as
trustworthy must be determined by each of our readers for themselves; but seeing
that they are of great antiquity, and that they are uncontradicted by any
contemporary testimony, they will not lightly be set aside by the historical
student.

The Welsh Triads, which are supposed to have
been collected in the seventh century, tell us that Bran was the first of the
Cymbry who accepted Christianity; that he had been seven years at Rome as a
hostage for his son Caradog (Caractacus), who had been taken prisoner by the
Romans; and that on his return from Rome to his native country, Bran was
accompanied by four missionaries named, ilid, Cyndar, and his son, Mawan, men of
Israel, and Arwystli Hen, a, man of Italy." Arwystli is Welsh for
Austobulous. Cressy says that "St. Austobulous, a disciple of St. Paul at Rome
(Rom. xvi.10), was sent as an apostle to the Britons, and was the first bishop
of Britain; that he died at Glastonbury, A.D. 99, and that his commemoration, or
saint's day, was kept in the Church on March 15th." (Avile'sSt. Paul in
Britain, pp. 110-111)